This week, the Australia Reads campaign received a $100,000 funding boost from the federal government, and delayed this year’s Australian Reading Hour event from 17 September to 12 November due to Covid-19. The campaign also launched its ‘School Kids’ initiative, a list of recommended books for which publishers will create teaching notes and offer increased bookseller discounts.

At the launch of the virtual Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Melbourne-based publisher Windy Hollow Books was named as a winner of the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year. Meanwhile, Hachette Australia has experienced one of its ‘best ever’ first quarters, despite parent company Lagardère reporting a sales decline.

The Sydney Writers’ Festival has launched a new podcast—a series of 50 ‘re-imagined sessions’ from its 2020 program—as has the Small Press Network, which also announced plans for a real-world November conference.

‘This is the year to buy New Zealand books, if you want to be sure our books are still around in the future.’—Publishers Association of New Zealand president Julia Marshall urges support for local booksellers and authors after reporting that the month-long lockdown ‘obliterated’ publishers’ sales.

Books+Publishing’s website and publications contain content that is exclusive to subscribers. To photocopy, email or otherwise reproduce all or part of Books+Publishing’s content without the written permission of the publisher is illegal.